


College Stress, Drunken Mess

by amixii10



Series: August Miraculous AUs [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU Yeah AUgust (Miraculous Ladybug), Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Mutual Pining, slowburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25678618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amixii10/pseuds/amixii10
Summary: In which Marinette and Adrien discover each other, slowly.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: August Miraculous AUs [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860127
Comments: 8
Kudos: 61





	College Stress, Drunken Mess

**Author's Note:**

> My first work for AU Yeah August! In which Adrien and Marinette are design majors and struggle with college life.

Marinette shrieks. “Tikki, get out of there!” 

Tikki pops her head out of the wall from where she had phased. 

“Well, you said that you wanted to know who was in the room next to yours,” she responds nonchalantly, shrugging her tiny shoulders. 

“Yeah, but I don’t want you phasing through walls and freaking people out!” 

Tikki tilts her head. “Why? It’s not like he saw me.” 

Marinette sighs and turns back to her sketchbook. “Just don’t make it a habit, okay?” 

“Okay, Marinette. But just so you know, it’s this guy who sleeps like a dad, snoring and everything. He has blond hair, but that’s all I could see of him,” Tikki says before biting into a cookie. 

“That’s cool,” Marinette says absent-mindedly, absorbed in a sketch. 

After a few moments, she finishes it and swivels around in her chair to drape a piece of fabric against a mannequin. 

“Perfect!” she exclaims and turns back to fixing up the design in her notebook. 

“Marinette, you really should get some rest. You’ll pass out at the rate you’ve been going at.” 

“Pssh,” she says dismissively, “sleep is for the weak and I’m the strongest person in this galaxy.” 

“Marinette! If you don’t get in bed right now, I’ll call Alya!” 

Marinette swivels sharply in her chair to look her kwami dead in the eye.

“If you call her, I will hand you over to Hawkmoth myself.” 

Tikki pouts and crosses her arms over her body. Her antennae droop a little bit. 

“Fine… but Marinette, you really should get some sleep! You have that design final tomorrow.” 

“I know, Tikki, that’s why I’m designing at three a.m. because it’s due at eight!” she replies, her voice increasing in volume with every word. 

Tikki drops to sit on her desk. “I’m sorry, Marinette. I just don’t want you to hurt yourself.” 

Marinette looks at her crestfallen expression and closes her sketchbook, her pencil still resting inside of it. She pulls her drooping pigtails out, mussing her hair up with her fingers. 

“No, I’m sorry, Tikki. I didn’t mean to yell at you. I’ll finish this design and I’ll try to sleep, okay?” 

“Alright,” Tikki says with a yawn. She curls up in the tiny bed that Marinette had made her, and Marinette pulls the blanket over her tiny body. 

***

Marinette stumbles into class late, which means that she has to sit in the back, far from her normal seat in the front. She ends up sitting next to some guy with a grey beanie. 

“Hey there,” he whispers. “Wanna piece of gum?”

Marinette shrugs. “Sure,” she whispers back. 

He hands her a piece and she takes it, opening it at quietly as possible. 

“What’d I miss?” she asks quietly as she pulls out her binder and folder from her bag. 

“Not much, just the review from yesterday. Oh, and she also had us ask any questions and stuff,” he tells her as he takes out a water bottle. 

“Cool. Thanks.” 

“No problem,” he responds, grinning at her, “what’s your name? I’m Adrien.” 

“I’m Marinette.” 

They smile and turn back to the board. 

***

“Hey, Adrien! Wait up!” Marinette calls after him. Adrien turns around and nearly bumps into Marinette, who was running at him at startling speeds. He catches her before she could fall. 

“What are you doing ?” he asks her incredulously. Her arms are filled with boxes from a bakery, and her eyes are frenzied. He slowly pries a few of the boxes from her arms. 

“I visited my parents last night and they had apparently been waiting for me and they’re bakers so they baked a bunch of stuff for me and my friends except all of my other friends go to different colleges and you’re my only friend that I could give this to except I know that you’re a model so I have no idea what to do with these-” 

Adrien cuts her off with a laugh. “It’s okay, Mari. I’m sure that I could take some and give them to some of the other models during our shoot later. And if you want, we can take my car and drop them off to your other friends. 

She instantly brightens and her shoulders relax. She hugs him. “You’re a lifesaver, Adrien. Thank you so, so, so so much.” 

He hugs back. “It’s no big deal. I’m happy to help.” 

***

“Adriennnnn,” Marinette slurs from her place on the couch. He looks at her. 

“Yes? Do you wanna go home now?” 

“No! Adrien, Alya’s bein’ mean to me,” she says with a pout. He stifles a laugh at her drunken stupor. 

“Oh? What did she say?” he responds, clearly humoring her. He takes a drink of fruit punch. 

“She said that you only think I’m your friend,” she replies promptly, spitting the last word. 

His brow furrows at her words. “Yeah, I’m your friend. What does she mean?” 

“She means that you’ll never like me more than that.” 

Oh. 

“I like you a lot, Mari,” he hurries to reassure her after he sees tears welling up in her blue, blue eyes. “But how about we have this conversation when you’re sober?”

“No! I need to know now,” and he hugs her before convincing her to go back to their apartments. 

“Stay with me? I don’t wanna be alone tonight… it’s his anniversary and I hate him so, so, so much! Don’t leave me like he did,” she pleads with him after they stop in front of her door. He sighs. 

“Fine, but I’m sleeping on the couch.” 

“Okay,” she says after a moment. 

Once Adrien’s sure that he’s asleep, he whispers furiously to Plagg. 

“Did you know that she liked me?” 

A snicker. “It’d take a real idiot not to see it coming.” 

Adrien drops his head into his hands. “I think I like her too. What do I do?”

“Kiss her when she wakes up, I guess,” Plagg says before turning back to his camembert. 

“That’s not helpful!” Plagg just shrugs apathetically. 

“Adrien?” Marinette asks, poking him for the nth time. 

He finally stirs. “Mm, whaddya want, Mari?”

“For you to wake up! We’ll be late to Design 101 and your dad’s supposed to be there!” 

He snaps awake on the sofa. He grabs his phone to check the time. “Oh, shit. I have a meeting with him before class in five minutes.”

He fixes his hair somewhat before grabbing a piece of toast from the plate on the table and kisses both her cheeks before sprinting out of the room. 

She laughs. 

“Hey, Marinette? Can we talk?” Adrien asks later that day when they’re sitting in his room, playing Mecha Strike. 

She puts down her controller. “Sure.” 

“Um, do you remember what you said last night?” 

Marinette feels the blood draining from her face. What had she done last night? She remembers a drunken haze of Adrien half-carrying, half-dragging her up to her flat, but doesn’t remember anything beyond that.

“No…” she says honestly, bracing herself. 

He touches her shoulder lightly. “You told me that you liked me? Or at least implied it.” 

“Uh. Yeah, that’s true. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same, nothing has to change between us-” she mumbles uncomfortably. 

“No! I like you too, and in that way. I though about it a lot and realized that I might be a little bit in love with you,” he says, cutting her off. She blushes deeply. 

“Oh! Um, in that case, do you wanna maybe go out?” she asks awkwardly. He beams. 

“Yes! I want to!” he says with such earnest that her heart melts. 

She leans forward, or maybe he does, and they share a soft kiss. She smiles into it, and feels him doing the same, making the kiss close-lipped and odd. They pull apart and smile before kissing again. This was going to work exactly as they wanted. 

(Bonus: 

“Marinette! Why does Nino get to know about this before I do?” 

“Sorry, Alya! Adrien beat me to it!” )


End file.
